Search marketing is growing with leaps and bounds. This growth is resulting in a whole new array of topics for the SES conferences. In an interview with Webpronews at the SES conference in New York, Rebecca Lieb and Elizabeth Osmeloski, both of Search Engine Watch, spoke with us about these notable changes.

The ethics of SEO has recently raised a lot of discussion. Is it ethical for an SEO consultant to do SEO for a company, and then turn around and do it again for a competitor to that company? According to Lieb and Osmeloski, the ethical question is dependent upon whether or not the other company is a direct competitor. For instance, a consulting company could perform SEO for a company that sells dress shoes, but it could also do SEO for a tennis shoe company. Both companies are shoe companies, but they have an entirely different target market. On the other hand, if the companies are direct competitors, they still could use SEO to their advantage. The SEO consultant can advise them to use key words that are different from the other companies’ key words. In this case, the clients will be saving, because it would not benefit either company if the searches for both were bringing up the same items. The experience SEO consultants have, works as an advantage for competing companies. This topic is actually a problem that has been around for quite some time in advertising and marketing realms. Search marketing consultants try to find a happy medium for both clients based upon their own personal ethics.

A trend that seems to be increasing in the SEO world is the severe lack of people. There are hardly any training programs for SEO since colleges and universities are not offering programs at this time. This lack of qualified people is another problem that has been around for a while in search and interactive marketing. Large companies are beginning to offer training programs to open the door for people to learn about the industry, and maybe help to solve this problem. According to Osmeloski, statistics show people are only staying with companies for 11 months before moving on to bigger and better opportunities.

Another change that has popped up in recent years is the tremendous increase of women into the SEO industry. Women are very dominant in marketing and advertising, and now they are branching out into search as well. Search is complicated. According to Lieb, in the past, SEO has been associated with “technology and geeks.” But a new light has been shed on the industry with the incoming of women to SEO. Because women are known for being good communicators, maybe they have helped the audience gain a better understanding of SEO. It is an exciting time for the SEO right now. The search marketing industry is developing in areas once thought to be unattainable, but these areas are now within reach. Although SEO is facing some issues, the problems are simply reflections of growth.